I had a marvellous time on day two at the AES Convention in Long Beach. It was one of those days where you bounce between future-facing ideas and classic kit that still shapes the way we make records. Here are the highlights.
Eventide: harmony inside the reverb
We started at Eventide, a company I have admired since their early digital hardware changed the landscape. They showed Temperance Pro, a new reverb that uses modal responses. In plain English, you choose specific notes from the chromatic scale and the reverb rings in those notes. Want a C major seventh halo around your vocal, tucked into the ambience rather than stacked as a choir? Turn it up and the room blooms in chord tones. Turn it the other way and you can duck those notes to clear space for an instrument that needs to speak.
There is a step sequencer in the Pro version, so your reverb can follow the song’s chord progression. It is a production tool as much as a space maker. There is also a Temperance Lite that lets you try the core concept for free.
Eventide also reminded us why their classics endure. The H3000 still inspires devotion and their plugins are modelled from a golden reference unit. Blackhole and MicroPitch now have immersive algorithms, so you can detune and place offsets differently in each speaker position. It is creative fun with real mix utility.
Richard Factor and the Omnipressor: design, refined
Catching up with Eventide founder Richard Factor was a treat. He told the story of the Omnipressor across its generations. The first white-face unit did everything, however it was not exactly friendly to use. Version two improved the interface and now the latest re-release adds modern practicality like a mix control for instant parallel fun.
Russell from Eventide gave a brilliant mini-masterclass on why the Omnipressor feels unique. The function control rotates the entire input versus output curve around a fulcrum, so you get downward compression above threshold and upward compression below threshold. There is no knee at the threshold, which is why it moves through dynamics so musically. If you have ever slapped one across a mono drum mic and smiled, that is the reason.
Jack Douglas once told me about flanging snares with an envelope follower on Aerosmith mixes. That spirit of playful engineering is baked into boxes like this.
Audioscape: character, control, and clever twists
Over at Audioscape, our friend Chris Yetter walked us through a rack of beautifully built units that blend vintage soul with modern reliability.
- VC-Comp takes the Gates Sta-Level concept and expands it, offering that wonderfully lazy, musical movement people adore, but now with extended attack and release ranges.
- D Comp is the star of the show — a diode-bridge compressor that borrows from several classic British designs and adds modern flexibility. It can deliver the tone and punch of an Abbey Road-style compressor, yet push far beyond into creative saturation. With its wide parameter range, side-chain high-pass filter, and ability to run in “out” mode for pure saturation, it is an incredibly musical tool.
- Their reimagined 1178 is also worth attention. Once dismissed by engineers chasing its older sibling, it is finding new appreciation as a stereo bus compressor. I’ve always loved these on room mics — they’ve been a go-to for me for years. They make everything sound bigger, more alive, and add a kind of natural glue that just pulls the room together.
- And, of course, their DA-3A is one of the most classic electric-guitar compressors ever built. When I worked at The Plant in Sausalito recording The Fray’s second album, there were DA-3As everywhere — above the console and behind us in racks. It all made sense when I heard how those compressors shaped the guitars — that bright, elastic spank you also hear all over Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. The DA-3A gives guitars their bounce and sheen, sitting perfectly in a mix without losing dynamics.
Audioscape’s approach perfectly captures what makes the AES Convention so inspiring: tools built by people who love sound for the sheer joy of how it moves air and emotion.
Women’s Audio Mission: training and community at scale
Meeting Terri Winston and Sammie Wallinga from Women’s Audio Mission was energising. WAM is a 501c3 based in San Francisco with a second site in Los Angeles. They train around 3,000 women and gender-expansive people each year across music production and recording, run two commercial studios, and offer Dolby Atmos and Pro Tools certifications. They also reach 2,000 middle-school girls annually. The studios are staffed by their own trained engineers and there is a strong emphasis on allyship and industry integration. If you want to make a record with them or join a community that lifts each other up, check them out. It is real change through hands-on work.
Hear Back: personal monitoring from eight channels to 128, then all-in-one
Shelby Logan Warne caught up with the team at Hear Technologies, a company she knows well — she uses their system every day at her studio, Sensible Music, where it has become an essential part of the workflow.
- Gen 1 and Octo remain rock solid and, importantly, backwards compatible. You can add new mixers to older hubs.
- The Pro System jumps to 128 channels with Dante, AES67 and Waves options, zero perceived latency, talkback, intercom and named channels. Their ProConnect software handles firmware updates and lets you label and manage from iOS or Android. Save a session, recall in seconds, and get back to recording.
- A look ahead at Switchback Plus showed an all-in-one Dante device with high-quality mic preamps, line inputs, personal mixing and control surface functions. The idea is simple. One compact box, PoE, 64 channels on the network, and direct control of transport and MIDI from the unit. Priced to be accessible so students and working musicians can kit out a rig without buying three separate boxes.
Triad-Orbit: position anything, anywhere
We rely on Triad-Orbit in our rooms for a reason. Their stands and mounting systems are built like precision instruments — the kind of engineering that feels reassuringly solid the moment you touch it. The build quality is exceptional: heavy-duty joints, perfectly machined fittings, and smooth-locking mechanisms that stay put no matter how much weight you hang from them.
One of the most impressive aspects of Triad-Orbit gear is its incredibly small footprint. Whether you are in a compact control room or a live room packed with musicians, their stands take up minimal floor space while remaining utterly stable. That matters more than ever for modern studios where every inch counts, especially when juggling multiple cameras, microphones, or instruments.
Their new Producer Kit packs clamps, ball-joint swivels and a sturdy desk stand into a portable case for mobile creators. The IO-Orbit Pro clamp locks onto almost anything — tables, poles, rack rails, even mic stands — and can hold cameras, mics, phones, lights or tablets with ease. The IO-Desk is essentially a modular workstation on wheels, a cheese-plate platform where you can mount laptops, controllers, and accessories exactly where you want them.
The entire Triad-Orbit ecosystem is designed to eliminate frustration. Every component connects seamlessly through the same IO quick-release mechanism, so you can swap attachments or reposition a mic stand in seconds without tools. The result is cleaner setups, faster workflow, and far fewer tangled cables or top-heavy stands cluttering your room.
It is practical innovation done right: rugged enough for the road, elegant enough for a world-class studio, and adaptable enough for the ever-changing needs of today’s creators.
A masterclass in ensemble recording: Beach Boys sessions, Brian Wilson, and why leakage is lovely
One of the most moving moments of the entire AES Convention for me was the deep dive into Beach Boys tracking, led by the wonderful Mark Linett. Hearing those isolated vocal tracks from God Only Knows and California Girls through the studio monitors was utterly breathtaking. The clarity, the blend, and the sheer musicality of those voices — completely raw, unprocessed, and human — genuinely brought tears to my eyes. It reminded me why I fell in love with recording in the first place.
Mark’s insights were invaluable. He painted a vivid picture of what it was like inside Western Studio 3, one of Brian Wilson’s favourite rooms. It was a small space, just a handful of microphones, and not a single pair of headphones in sight. The players balanced themselves by instinct, listening to each other and adjusting dynamically in real time. There was no isolation, only interaction. The room itself became part of the performance.
Mark explained how they often tracked the drums last because there was already so much drum bleed captured through the other instruments. That concept alone flips modern recording practice on its head. He also described how submixing was done live on a 12-channel console, sometimes even wiring two mics together to share one fader. It was all about making quick, confident decisions and trusting your ears.
Two things really stayed with me. First, the speed of Brian’s choices — he’d ask Hal Blaine to try a fill on toms, then on snare, and when it felt right, he’d simply say, “That’s it, roll.” There was no overthinking, just feel and instinct. Second, the acceptance of imperfection. If a shaker was slightly off, it stayed in, because the emotion and momentum of the take were far more important than technical precision.
Listening to those recordings in isolation underscored how extraordinary the Beach Boys really were — not just in harmony, but in humanity. Their records breathe because they’re real performances, captured with care and courage. Sitting there, eyes closed, hearing those voices rise and blend in perfect dissonance and resolution, I felt both humbled and inspired. It was a masterclass not just in engineering, but in what it means to make music that lasts forever.
Why days like this matter
We live in an era where the quest for sterile perfection is never more than a click away. Days like this remind me that the most enduring tools spark ideas, not just correct them. Eventide’s modal reverb lets harmony live in the air around a voice. The Omnipressor reshapes dynamics in a way your ear finds musical. Audioscape gives you colour and control. Hear Back speeds up sessions and empowers performers. Triad-Orbit solves practical problems so you can place a mic or a camera where the sound and the shot are right. WAM builds the next generation of engineers and producers who will use all of this with taste and intent.
I left day two with a smile on my face, the same smile I get when I put on The Yes Album and “Perpetual Change” fills the room. Long live curiosity, community, and the joy of making records together.
